One Month

All the anxious waiting in the first month, for everything the next 8 to come would bring, slowly turned into life, and now I am here sitting with only one left. I can't stop thinking about how extraordinary this year has been.

Sepeda Sepeda di Desa
Bikes in the Village

In actual news, April was a busy month for me. May is proving itself to be just as entertaining. In the beginning of April, I travelled to Bali for a week with Sabine's school (Bali is amazing, I have a whole post about it already, go check it out!). Shortly after I got home, there was a news report that a plane crash-landed in the sea right before the runway in Bali. I thought it was, well not a coincidence, but interesting that that happened when it did. The story stayed on the news and in the papers for a couple days after the fact. Anyways moving on... Darlene's host family has a village house in Bantul, a city outside of Jogja, that I went and stayed at for two nights. Going to the village was an enjoyable break from the noisy motorcycle filled city life in Jogja. We walked through the rice fields, ate pure sugar cane till our teeth rotted (literally there is so much sweet food in the village, it never stops, and its all so good), killed a chicken and ate it the next day, and drank a lot of tea. We lived a very Javanese style life for those two days. The week after that I ended up switching host families, which is something I had really been thinking over for the past couple months, but just ended up happening two weeks ago. I'm very thankful for my first host family, really truly. They and their extended family has been so welcoming and nice to me for most of my time here, and I'm truly grateful to have gotten the opportunity to share part of my experience here with them. I moved into another amazing host family two weeks ago, and am so happy to be here. They are so generous to welcome me into their home even though I only have such short time here left. In April I spent a lot of time at Angkringans which I really enjoy. I went to Kraton Jogja for the first time and saw a Javanese dance performance by Darlene's Javanese Arts School which was fabulous. Darlene and I met a very interesting Bule there who is from Austria and is working with the Austrian government doing art projects in Jogja. This guy had the most insane stories. April was an interesting month. 

Darlene's Host dad with one of the chickens we ate (Probably)

April 25th was a fabulous day. I'm sure everyone around the world saw it, because everyone around the world can... the moon. I was up in the mountains, and glanced up at the sky for a moment. The rest of the night I was mesmerized. The moon is amazing. April 25th was a good day.

 The other day I got loads of free Karaoke and Zoo vouchers so there's no way the next month can be boring in anyway. America should seriously consider getting more Karaoke places, karaoke is so fun...Asia knows how to do it.

One thing i'm looking forward to coming home is speaking Indonesian and splurtting out words in aghast ... no one will no what i'm saying and everyone will think i'm insane. 

I went to Borobudur Temple for the third time since i've been here. For those of you who don't know, Borobudur Temple is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, so clearly it is a huge tourist destination. It is located maybe an hours drive from my house here. The first time I went to Borobudur, I was with Avery, Darlene, and Sabine. As three ovbious foreigners, just by walking around we drew a lot of attention to ourselves. (I'm sorry if i've already written about this but trust me it ties into my story). Anyways so we go to Borobudur, and honest to god more than 100 people came up to us and asked for pictures because we're bule, it was not only exhausting but annoying. The second time I went I was with Avery and Darlene again, and Actually Avery's real mom was in Indonesia visiting so she was with us too. This time, when ever we were asked to be in a photo, we would kindly say...sorry, usually we charge 2,000 rp (20 cents) for a photo. Our intention was to rid off anyone who wanted a picture with us so that we could enjoy the immense, magical temple... but as it turns out we had some takers. By the end of the day we had made 70,000 Rp. (around 7 dollars). The most recent, third time, I went to Borobudur, I went with my host brother because his current job requires him to research the visitor flow or something like that. We were able to enter Borobudur through a special entrance for free, and I was privileged enough to meet and have a tour of the park by the boss of the park it self. We hiked up a  beautiful hill that looked down on the hill that Borobudur stands on.. it was truly an amazing sight. That day, I wore a hijab to the grounds. I decided to wear it because I didn't want to draw attention, or make money. As it turns out, wearing a hijab isn't quite enough to cover up my bule looks. My nose is just too big. There were still a couple people who asked to take photos with me, however it was maybe only 5 people where as the times when I didn't wear one.. actually 100 people came up to me and asked.

The Spectacular view of Borobudur from the Hill we hiked up. Luar Biasa.  

I've found myself rather bored at school lately, but I'm excited for this weekend because class 11 is going on a village stay, so I might get an opportunity to work in rice fields like you might think the stereo type looks like . We'll see how that goes!

I have four weeks left in Jogja as of today. I'll be in my home on June 20th.

Just another little up date..i'm really excited because my family is going to be hosting an Iraqi Youth Leader from the IYLP Exchange Program this July. I can't wait to experience how the other half of exchange works.

Life is so crazy.

Sampai jumpa, besok juni.
Daaaaa